A medical appliance, such as a computer tomograph, includes a multiplicity of detector modules which are respectively designed to capture measurement data. The detector modules are electronic components which are in different, similar or identical forms. In addition, there are also different types of detector modules.
During error diagnosis or functional monitoring of the computer tomograph, it is of crucial importance at what point within the medical appliance a respective detector module has been fitted. To diagnose the error (in an erroneous CT image or an erroneous image reconstruction), it is necessary to know what detector module at what slot within the medical appliance has been used to capture the data, in order to draw conclusions about a cause of error and in order to be able to restrict the error.
It is therefore found to be of crucial importance to know the association between a respective detector module and a slot within the medical appliance.
This has been solved in the prior art by a barcode system, including a bar code and a bar code reader. In this regard, each detector module has a unique identification, what is known as a serial number. The serial number is attached to the respective detector module as a sticker during production or following delivery of the respective module. The serial number can therefore be read manually by the maintenance personnel, and the bar code can furthermore also be read in by an optical scanner in situ.
The previous practice known from the prior art has a series of associated drawbacks.
One fundamental drawback can be seen in that fully automated remote diagnosis was not possible in the previous systems, since a service engineer in situ had first of all to read the respective serial number with the bar code. This practice is susceptible to error and cost intensive.
Another source of error in the case of the previous method from the prior art can be seen in that the respective configuration of the detector module or of the appliance may possibly not be recorded in the current version. Normally, a detector module is delivered by the factory in a particular configuration. When the detector module is fitted into the appliance or at a later time during the operation of the appliance, configuration changes on the detector module or other changes to the module (such as module replacement) are frequently made by the service engineer in situ.
Although provision is made for the service engineer to perform an update in a central database for every change, so that all changes ought to be available in theory—this practice is found not to be able to be implemented reliably in practice, since a service engineer generally does not update all changes in the database immediately. Remote diagnosis, where the data are read from a central database for the respective appliance and are analyzed, has therefore often been found not to be able to be implemented to date, since the database does not store the actual current state (for example even after a module has been replaced by another module in the panel, where the module replacement has not been updated in the database by the service engineer). Reliable access to the respective current configuration of the medical appliance is therefore not possible in the prior art, which means that remote diagnosis must often fail.
Appliances which include a multiplicity of modules and which perform automatic interface adaptation are known from US patent application US 2003/0074489 A1 (“Steger”), for example. However, this document provides no kind of indication about reliable error diagnosis and about determining the configuration of an appliance for use in the medical field. Steger describes a method in which the modules are recorded and in which their interface requirements are determined.